Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Synopsis

With a signature blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle, the saga of the world's toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Bigger muscle, badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in an epic vision of imagination from Oscar®-nominated director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy).

After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it's up to the planet's toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red. He may be horned. He may be misunderstood. But when you need the job done right, it's time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman).

Along with his expanding team in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development--pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic Johann--the BPRD will travel between the surface strata and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal. And Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who's accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

It’s the sequel they said would never be made. Ok, maybe they is just me. But then I didn’t count on Guillermo del Toro’s rapidly skyrocketing status as Hollywood’s new golden boy. He’s used that status to make Hellboy II: The Golden Army a reality.

It hasn’t been easy getting Hellboy back into theaters. The first film was well received by critics and those who bothered to show up to see it, sadly the number of people who actually bought a ticket was depressingly few. Weak box office performance rarely results in a sequel, and more profitable superheroes than Hellboy have lost the fight for franchise status. Luckily, del Toro saw the potential in his red-horned bad guy beater, and so did Universal Pictures.

The sequel was originally on track at Sony, but after a few months to mull over the first film’s weak box office performance they dropped it cold. Hellboy II seemed dead in the water, but Guillermo del Toro kept fighting to make his follow up a reality. In road Universal to save the day. Now not only is a second movie happening, but Del Toro has been talking rather excitedly about a third. It’s pretty clear the director loves his character, and as long as there’s someone to fun it don’t be surprised if he goes right on making Hellboy movies until his heavily prostheticed star Ron Perlman keels over.

When it first burst onto screens back 2004, Hellboy was loaded with unrealized potential. The characters leaped off the screen and Perlman’s performance as Hellboy was one of the best of the year. But the story had problems, and seemed to rely too much on weirdly realized tentacles. This character deserved better, and Del Toro deserved this second shot at making Hellboy’s movie work. He’s getting it, and I’ve never been happier to be wrong about the future of any franchise.

One of the current “dream projects” for fans is Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy 3. While there is a desire on the part of the creative minds to make the film, there seems to be little interest from the holders of the purse strings to finance it.

It’s not clear what’s gotten into Ron Perlman’s craw this week but something has the man pushing gung-ho for that elusive third Hellboy movie. Now he’s at it again today and he’s letting fans know that he’s not giving up.

If there's anything out there with the power to resurrect the idea of making Hellboy 3, it's the power of the Internet! Ron Perlman, who plays the hulking cigar-smoking devil in the films, has taken to social media to get the fans involved. Could there be hope for this thing yet?

The ShockTilYouDrop story soon updated that Legendary’s Tull responded by saying “there are rights issues that would need to be sorted out for Legendary to get involved.” No word on whether these issues are something Tull thought would be worth his time however.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I'm happy to mention it again: I love Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy movies. Each one is perfectly cast, (Ron Perlman as the title character is genius), the action in both films is fantastic, and the closeness between the director and comic creator Mike Mignola has served to satiate the fanboys.

"I wrote a part for him. He read it and if everything falls in place, Ron Perlman has a role in it written specifically for him […] Ron plays Larson, the sort of dog guy, the guy that cares for the dogs and the sled"

Apparently del Toro wants to keep Mignola around, even though he's now working with J.R.R. Tolkien's characters instead. Collider caught up with Mignola at last week's Saturn Awards, and he admitted that he's spent some time in New Zealand helping del Toro prep the movie

There is a largely unspoken issue of many soldiers' inability to adjust between the two very different lifestyles of service and civilian, but Isolation lacks the clarity to make the case as strongly as it should.